


The roads we shouldn't take

by impilusa



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-06
Updated: 2019-04-06
Packaged: 2020-01-05 23:29:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18376286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/impilusa/pseuds/impilusa
Summary: JongIn couldn't find a pacific way to get rid off his bullies, so he decided to start self-defense classes to give them their due. What he wasn't expecting was that his teacher would be Park ChanYeol, one of the most feared boys at school.ChanYeol will teach him more than one life lesson, and will try to help JongIn in the journey of finding who he truly is; and the most important, if he really wants to become into someone like his own bullies.





	The roads we shouldn't take

Looking at the boy in the mirror, JongIn asked himself what the hell was he doing with his life.

Not that he was used to it, but he often received a good degree of bullying at least every week. Most of the time they only said words that made him feel bad, but others (which was when he feared most), they gave him strong and painful beatings.

The first time it wasn’t that terrible and he returned home with a couple of scratches in his arms and stomach, but as the year went by, the beatings they gave him became more and more terrible. A point arrived that JongIn no longer knew what excuses to invent for his family to excuse the bruises that painted his soft skin.

He couldn’t escape his bullies even if he wanted to, because the leader of that group of bastards who did not leave him alone was, conveniently, the son of the principal and part of the football team: Cha JungSeok, the star of the school.

JongIn was fucked up and with no one to blame.

His best friend, SeHun, had tried to interfere in the beatings, but unlike JongIn, SeHun did know how to defend himself and left him alone in a short time because he was part of the team as well. If they were together, nobody approached JongIn, but if he was alone ...

Well, what happened was that they beated the shit out of him. And JongIn had really reached his limit on any Tuesday after receiving the beating of his life.

When JongIn sat down to dinner at the table with his family, two nights after being brutally beaten and called with a thousand degrading insults, all his relatives looked straight at his face like he was some kind of freak. JongIn exhibited in his skin a palette of different colors and textures, from yellow and green to purple and red, that seemed to be pretty disturbing for all in the room except for him.

Unlike the previous times he had been hit, JongIn this time could not escape from the school’s principal. He didn’t give him names, but it was likely that the school principal already knew who they had been. His mother had encouraged him to give the principal the names of his bullies, but JongIn didn’t say a word.

A week of punishment or a brief suspension was not going to be any kind of lesson for the guys who hit him. No. He needed something different for them. He had reached his limit and knew that if he didn’t wanted his family to change him to other school, he had to act.

But he had not been to school for two days and nothing had even occurred to him. And his family just that day met full at the table, only to stare at his shattered face.

"Honey, are not you going to tell us who...?"

Jongin got up before his mother could finish the sentence, disappearing on the stairs to his room. Which was, of course, the worst of all, because being the youngest of four sisters, they all believed that only by that fact could they take privileges over him.

Apparently, everyone thought that way about him. JongIn was very good by nature and people believed that he could take advantage of him for it.

With a rage that JongIn did not know he had accumulated, the next few days of rest in his house were spent ignoring everyone who sent messages except Sehun. His friend was the only one in the world who JongIn would ever trust. He loved his best friend so much, and also SeHun was the only person that always understood him.

 

SeHun: You told em?

Me: Nope.

SeHun: Tomorrow I'm gonna see you, and I have to tell, everyone is talking about you. Even ChanYeol asked me what happened.

Me: Wait, ChanYeol? Like Park ChanYeol? The same one that was kicked from his last school? The giant weirdo who sits alone at the back of the cafeteria and does not talk to anyone?

SeHun: giant weirdo or terrifying giant?

Me: Terrifying.

SeHun: Yeah, that same one.

Me: Waoh. I’m something like a superstar?

SeHun: No, just a fucked up kid.

SeHun: Hey, JongIn...

Me: What?

SeHun: Are you upset with me? 

Me: What? No, SeHun. Why do you think that?

SeHun: It’s just… 

SeHun: Sorry bro, I didn’t know that they could be such bastards to wait until after your extra classes.

Me: Hey, do not even think about apologizing for that. It wasn’t your fault.

Me: I'm just... fed up, SeHun. 

Me: I didn’t told the principal because I know that they aren’t going to stop with their bullshit for a stupid suspension. And I don’t want to have my face split any longer, so I need a solution and I need it really quick.

SeHun: I have an idea.

Me: Your brain is useful finally? Wow, congrats.

SeHun: Oh my god, shut up and let me tell you.

Me: ???

SeHun: There's a gym a few streets from my house. They give classes of personal defense and martial arts. Do you want us to go together?

SeHun: I don’t know how to defend myself either. I only have a good right hook for football. Let’s just go and see.

SeHun: What do you say?

JongIn: I’m in.

 

 

 

"It looks like shit." The place on the front looked like it was soon to fall to pieces. "It's here?".

SeHun bit his lip and hung his school bag on his shoulder better. They had just left school and went to the gym as soon as possible. They didn’t expect that place in those conditions, because according to SeHun, the gym was much more glamorous in his memories.

"It is". He sighed, returning his gaze to JongIn, who looked at him suspiciously. "No matter how it looks, the important thing is that we do not get our ass kicked again. Specially you".

"You're right". JongIn shrugged and gave SeHun a playful hit with his elbow. "You first".

"Fuck you."

Both seventeen-year-olds entered through a dilapidated and dirty door. The gym immediately received them with a strong smell of feet and sweat. Yes. It reeked of men exercising, if that could be called a kind of smell. It really stunk.

A dark corridor eventually led them to a large open space, looking like a warehouse but a little more decent. There were a lot of boxing bags hanging around the perimeter of the place, and in the center there were two rings where a fight was taking place in one of them. Most of the people who had been in the gym at the time were around it, encouraging or shouting barbarities to the fighters.

SeHun and JongIn looked at each other but a masculine, singsong voice caught their attention from the right, what appeared to be a completely glazed office. There were two desks inside, but there was no one there, but a boy of smaller stature than the two teenagers, standing in the door of it. He did not dress for anything appropriate for sports, as he wore a pastel blue shirt that was pretty giant for his body and jeans tightened to his slender legs. His face was... adorable, small and pretty, and his blue and black hair matched his clothes.

"Can I help you?" Said the boy, he looked their age or even younger. He was very beautiful, and JongIn noticed how SeHun looked at him and laughed internally.

"Yes, we came to... try a class of self-defense" Jongin replied, seeing that SeHun didn’t say anything. "As far as my friend knows, there is one today".

The boy smiled and signaled them to enter the office. In a few seconds both were sitting in front of one of the desks, and the noise of the fight had been completely muffled by the thick glass.

"Park is the one who gives the classes in the night, every Wednesday and Friday at seven," he responded, gesturing to the ring. JongIn observed the two fighters with helmets on, and from a distance he could not make out their faces because he was not wearing his glasses. "It's the one with the black shirt."

Nodding, the teenagers returned their curious looks to the boy with blue and black hair.

"Well, I'll need you to fill out this form. I'm sure you'll like the class, you will not regret it. Park has years of martial arts and will help you to defend yourselves very well. " Of course the boy had seen the cardinals that still have not disappeared from JongIn's face. "Here they are."

After filling out the forms with their data, the two went to change into the locker room. By the time they finihed, the fight did too, so they had nothing more to do than sit around and ask where Professor Park would give the class. An old man sent them to the ring next to where it had taken the scandalous fight before, so they stayed there, listening to the whispers of the other members of the gym talking about how incredible it had been Park's fight, that to be so young he fought like a lion, and many more compliments that partly disturbed JongIn. How young would that teacher be? And how terrible would he be with them?

“Oh my god, look at your ten o’clock”, whispered SeHun, punching him frantically in his stomach.

JongIn did what his friend say, and immediately he saw Park ChanYeol walking towards them. His strong features were all blank, and he looked at them expressionless.

He gulped at the image of ChanYeol. He was the terrorific giant that always stayed away from people at school. He was one of the most feared boys, no one even dared to talk to him, he was so scary and intimidating that he had no friends. Some people said that he was into drugs and that he was like two years older than everyone in his class, but no one did ever actually knew that. JongIn wasn’t that scared of ChanYeol, but anyways he never spoke to him because of his bad fame.

“Hey”, said Park ChanYeol when he finally stood in front of them. “Are you here for the self-defense class?”.

“Yeah”, answered SeHun. “What are you going to teach us?”

ChanYeol stared at his friend like he was some kind of stupid kid. Actually, it was a very stupid question to answer, but their professor did it anyways.

“Well,this is not an action movie where you learn to fight at the first class. We are just going to start with resistance, so go and run five times around the two rings while the other students arrive”.

“And then?” asked SeHun.

JongIn noticed really fast that SeHun didn’t like at all the idea of ChanYeol teaching them. He looked pissed. JongIn didn’t matter. He just wanted to learn some self-defense, it didn’t care who teached him.

“Then we’ll start with some push-ups”.

JongIn stared at SeHun with a I’m-gonna-kill-you expression, but his friend just shruggled and started to run. JongIn was a zero for sports and at the third round was really exhausted. Also, he felt all the time ChanYeol’s strong look in his back. 

He was getting really anxious.

 

 

 

Days passed without many more inconveniences. JongIn's return to school could have been something that caused a stir, but in reality it wasn’t. As always, he went unnoticed, only being called by some teachers to see how he was doing. He made himself aware of his grades and assignments, and life seemed to return to its normal course, while a couple of times a week he went with SeHun to train in self-defense classes.

The only strange thing about that was that nobody, absolutely nobody, had touched him even a hair for two whole weeks. It was starting to be worrying, because he was afraid that when they approached him again, it would be a lot worse than the last time.

That's why maybe he was putting more and more emphasis on his workouts. He exercised at home or when he had time, thinking that if he were stronger and stronger, he could beat his attackers when they came looking for him.

"ChanYeol! I assumed I would find you here. How are you?".

JongIn had decided to try to get to know ChanYeol better. He felt sorry that he was always alone, when after all he wasn’t so bad. Yes, ChanYeol was rough and very dry when speaking, but there was nothing wrong with it. He was alone at school and he wanted to try to become, even if a little, more friend of him. Maybe that could even give him advantages when it comes to learning to fight, if they were friends maybe ChanYeol could help him.

Since the man was not communicative and he was the weirdo of the school, everyone knew the places where he spent his time killing him, so he could avoid it and not meet him. JongIn was included in that "all".

The only thing he received in response was a grunt. ChanYeol sank further into his place in the school yard, with all his giant build accompanying the movement, and he put on his black hood as a sign that he didn’t want to talk.

"Well, I understand that you don’t want to talk to me. Then I'll just stay here".

JongIn sat next to him and picked up a textbook from his backpack. He had free time yet and homework to do.

"Are you really going to stay here?" ChanYeol questioned after a while in which JongIn only entertained himself doing his homework, sitting on the floor in the sun like him. "Don’t you have another place to go?".

"Hey! Don’t be rude. I want to spend time with you, why can’t I? "Jongin complained, closing his book. "We've been seeing each other almost every week after school and I don’t know anything about you, only that you know how to fight. You don’t think I have the right to want to know you better? "

"No, you don’t have it."

"Why not?".

ChanYeol was silent, clearly deciding to ignore him again. JongIn huffed and began to put his book in his backpack.

"Well, I'll leave you alone. I feel sorry if trying to get close to you is a nuisance for you". JongIn felt bad saying that, but his pride was greater. "I'm leaving".

"Wait". ChanYeol stood in front of him, marking the height difference between them. He took off the hood of his sweatshirt and stared into his eyes. "Tell me what classes we share and I'll let you... do what you want to do, I do not know what, but I'll leave you."

He looked awkward talking. ChanYeol was strange, JongIn thought.

"We have Literature together," he replied with a smile. ChanYeol looked surprised. "What, did you think I had never noticed you? You sit two banks away from me. "

ChanYeol looked bewildered.

"Oh, it's fine". He blinked at him several times, as if seeing him for the first time. "Well, I guess I'll sit here again. You can... I don’t know, stay. "

JongIn smiled, touched by how ChanYeol was acting.

"I can’t, we have Literature class now".

"Right!" Exclaimed the boy, standing up. "See you there". And he left fast as lightning, while JongIn watched him.

 

 

 

 

Somehow, JongIn managed to convince ChanYeol to go to the gym together after finishing classes, only a week later. His self-defense class was not until about seven o'clock, which was when the other students arrived, but he wanted to be there and learn to see the other wrestlers, plus he had heard that this was the schedule in which ChanYeol trained. JongIn was very curious to see him.

SeHun had in part been annoyed with him for wanting to go with ChanYeol, since he still did not quite like him at all. However, JongIn was able to convince him to also go with them, mostly using a secret trick that he knew would be effective with his best friend: BaekHyun. The boy attended the gym, he was an university student, and SeHun drooled for him. BaekHyun gave shit about him, but that didn’t stop SeHun from running behind the major throughout the gym and do all the errands that he asked in exchange for, perhaps, going on a date with him.

"I don’t understand why you're so attached to Park lately," Sehun whispered a bit after they saw the boy disappear in the locker room. "What do you want with him?".

JongIn sighed and took his friend by the shoulder, pushing him away from the door of the locker room to get some privacy.

"He's alone all the time, okay? What's wrong with wanting to make me close to him? He seems like an interesting person".

"Since when? Recently you said he was a terrifying giant".

"No, you said that." JongIn sighed when he noticed that his friend was looking at him as if a third eye had come out. "Okay, I may have said it, but I changed my mind. Listen, he knows a lot about fighting. If we are friends maybe he can help me a bit to improve. Wouldn’t it be great? With his help I could even kick the asses of those assholes".

"They haven’t come to you back, JongIn."

"And why does that matters?! Do I have to forgive them as well as nothing? They were fucking me for a very long time. "

SeHun didn’t seem to understand. His eyes darkened and he became serious. JongIn knew he wouldn’t understand, and now he was regretting the fact that he told him about it.

"I don’t think these are the right reasons to learn to fight, JongIn." SeHun shook his head and sighed. "We were just supposed to learn to defend ourselves."

"I knew you wouldn’t understand! They deserve a beating! "

"Yes, they deserve it," muttered SeHun, looking at him disappointed. "But I didn’t know you wanted to become them."

JongIn felt his soul sink to his feet.

"What do you mean?".

SeHun shook his head and pulled away from him. JongIn had not even realized how hard he was squeezing his shoulder until he saw his best friend's skin marked with his fingers.

"You know, I think I'll go home." He was defeated. "I'll see you at school."

That said, he left.

JongIn watched him, feeling angry and sad, not knowing exactly what to think about it. He felt so upset that he could only channel his anger against the stupid people who always hit him at school. They were the ones to blame for everything.

"Are you okay?", he heard a sing-song voice behind him. JongIn turned to see BaekHyun, with his overly tight jeans and bright black and blue hair. "Wowow, I won’t do anything to you, calm down”, he added at the moment they made eye contact.

"Why do you say that?".

"You look like you're about to kill someone."

JongIn pressed the front of his nose with his fingers.

"I don’t know, I just fought with SeHun... I think". ChanYeol appeared at that same moment wrapping his knuckles with bandages, passing by their side without paying attention. "Hey, you know what, I'll see you later Baek," he said goodbye to him, not knowing that BaekHyun was watching him worried.

JongIn came running around behind the tall young man who was heading straight for the available ring, the one closest to the entrance to the gym. Already accustomed to the smell of sweat and feet, JongIn did not even wrinkle his nose when he was next to the sweaty men running around and hitting the punch bags in the corners. He was interested to see what ChanYeol was going to do now that he was getting into the ring by himself.

Once he was in the ring, ChanYeol took off his sports bag that was slung over his shoulder and left it in a corner. He put on old, worn boxing gloves, and then pulled out another pair of bandages.

He threw them to JongIn, who caught them on the flight, although he was a little confused.

"Get up here, now," ChanYeol ordered without looking at him. He took off his usual black sweatshirt and was left alone in a black tank top with gray shorts. JongIn was more or less dressed the same, he had cotton clothes since he didn’t like wearing jeans. "Put on your gloves".

JongIn wanted to growl at how bossy Chanyeol was behaving, but in the end he just ignored him. Deep down, JongIn was excited because he thought they were going to be able to fight; he could learn from ChanYeol while they did it, and after all that was what he had wanted most since he tried to approach the boy a little more.

"Ready," he announced once he was with his gloved hands. ChanYeol approached him and took his hands to see if it was true, and once he checked, he walked away from him again. JongIn could feel how the remoteness of ChanYeol made him feel strange, and that intrigued him.

"Today we will only learn a couple of combinations of punches, okay? Then we can add some kickboxing kicks and so on, but for now only boxing hits. So, guard aloft".

 

 

 

 

JongIn pretended that he didn’t mind the fact that SeHun began to sit with the football team in the cafeteria, or that JungSeok and his friends were at the same table as him. It should not have mattered that his best friend began to join the enemy, right? Because maybe SeHun was not his friend after all. Because then why would he sit down with them?

He began to sit with ChanYeol every day, even though they did not talk much. ChanYeol had only one friend: Do KyungSoo. Nobody approached the boy because they thought he was a pyromaniac, so he ended up becoming friends with ChanYeol in his isolation at school.

The boy was nice, really. At first he was a little quiet, but then it turned out that he was quite talkative and intelligent, just as he struck ChanYeol by right and left. He probably didn’t know or wasn’t aware that ChanYeol could take it by the neck and blow him up in less than ten seconds.

"You're looking at them too much", KyungSoo said, hitting JongIn hard on the arm, who looked at him rather annoyed. "Because you put knives in the back of his neck, your friend will not come back, you know. He’ll do it only if you ask for forgiveness".

"I won’t do it! He is the one who should ask for my forgiveness".

"Whatever".

A slice of pizza landed on JongIn's tray the instant KyungSoo stopped talking. ChanYeol passed two seconds after by his side and sat in front of them at the table.

"Why pizza?" Jongin questioned, curious, seeing that the boy now had his empty tray. Apparently he had only bought that and given it to him.

ChanYeol didn’t answer or even looked at him. He took out his homework and started doing it, while KyungSoo started talking about conspiracy theories and how he hated the school principal so much that he expected him to retire soon, or die in a fire.

Well, maybe he was a little pyromaniac.

JongIn smiled softly throughout lunch as he ate the pizza that ChanYeol had bought for him.

 

 

 

 

More days passed and JongIn perfectioned his fighting technique, at the same time he began to follow some afternoons out of school to the assholes who had beaten him for so long, more specially he tracked down JungSeok. On the way to improving his fighting style, he ate more hits than most in the gym throughout his all life, but he was an avid student and he wasn’t going to give up. Soon, with his strength and fitness, as well as everything he had been working with ChanYeol, he was able to beat most of the opponents he faced in the ring. Most of the gym's clients congratulated him for the great progress he had made in just four months, but for him it had been an eternity.

However, he felt that the progress was worth it when he was about to beat ChanYeol in a fight.

"You did it right, JongIn," ChanYeol told him, beating him gently on the back as soon as the fight that the two of them had was over. "Do you want to go eat a hamburger?".

"It's okay". He was still feeling a little disappointed that he couldn’t beat ChanYeol.

“C’mon, I’ll pay”.

That's how they ended up in a small burger shop two blocks away from the gym. They were served with two greasy hamburgers, two giant soda glasses and a mountain of potato chips for both of them. They talked all night, and it was the first time that JongIn felt that he was really connecting with ChanYeol and getting to know him better.

"Is it true that you were expelled from your old school?", JongIn questioned after having gone through several topics in the conversation: music, sports, art, school subjects. "Or is it just a lie that you invented because you wanted people to leave you alone?".

"Yes, it is true that they expelled me," ChanYeol muttered, settling back in his chair, the giant biceps of his arms flexed as he put his hands together on the table. "But not for the reasons you believe. I didn’t get into a fight or anything like that. "

"And why was it?"

"Scapegoat," explains ChanYeol, scratching his chin. He looked very masculine and JongIn didn’t have the strength to look away, because his friend was looking towards a point in front of him and it allowed him to get a beautiful view of his profile. "I was mediocre in class, I did not get along with my classmates because they said rumors about me... I really had a bad reputation just for breathing, maybe it sounds familiar to you". JongIn knew that ChanYeol hasn’t done anything wrong in the school to which the two of them go, simply because of their pints they have labeled him a weirdo. "The thing was that two assholes were smoking in the school theater, and they set the curtain on fire. The whole place caught fire, and they found no one better than to blame me, since I had been in detention that day and had ended up escaping from it”.

"And it wasn’t you?"

"No, I didn’t go there, but nobody believed me either. They found the cigarettes turned off, and everyone knew that I smoked… so it wasn’t that hard for them to accuse me".

JongIn was silent, watching the serious face of ChanYeol.

"Are you still smoking?".

"No, I don’t do it anymore. Not since I started training in Taekwondo. It was only a year, because then my professor died, but everything I learned from him took me to a different path, a better one". He rubbed his wrists, as if talking a lot made him itchy. 

JongIn thought ChanYeol had never spoken as much as he did now, his deep husky voice was like music to the boy's ears. 

"Before, I lived full of anger, and I had a very ugly desire to learn to fight to avenge the sons of bitches who blamed me for the fire. But after... doing it, actually avenging myself, I discovered that that only made me feel worse about myself. Seeing their broken faces made me realize that maybe it was true: I was not the monster that had set fire to the theater of the school, but I was it because of having beaten almost to death some guys who perhaps did not deserve it at all" .

"But they blamed you!"

"And that? I really wasn’t happy after hitting them. I wasn’t. I had a very bad time, JongIn, that still haunts me. Knowing how to hurt someone gives you a power that, if you do not know how to use it, will only destroy you".

JongIn was almost offended by the way ChanYeol's words hit him deep in the soul. It made him seriously doubt whether he really wanted to get his revenge on the guys who had hurt him.

However, those words did not move enough shit inside him. They did make him upset, but not so much as to back out of what he planned to do next week.

"You're right," he said, smiling softly not to argue as he had already done with SeHun. He didn’t want to fight ChanYeol too. "Can we go now? Actually tomorrow I have an arithmetic test and I haven’t studied anything yet".

ChanYeol turned to him and gave him a very, very long look. JongIn stirred in his seat while biting his lower lip and decided to play with the sorbet he had in hand to distract himself from the scrutiny he was receiving from the boy.

"Yes, let’s go” ChanYeol finally said.

Once they put their things together, they both started walking in the same direction. JongIn understood that ChanYeol was accompanying him home, in silence, so he didn’t say anything.

"Why are you smiling?" ChanYeol questioned when they were already near JongIn's house.

"Oh, it's nothing. I was just thinking that today we had a good time together".

"Yes, it really was". ChanYeol started playing with the laces of his sweatshirt. "Haven’t you talked to Sehun yet?"

"No".

"Well, maybe you should. BaekHyun told me that SeHun is very sad and that he misses you very much. Maybe you two can get together and talk".

"Baekhyun?" Jongin questioned raising his eyebrows. "How does he know...?".

"They are doing it!" said ChanYeol, before faking a chill. "They are like two rabbits in heat".

"At what time? I never found out about that. The last time I spoke with SeHun, BaekHyun barely gave him a glance".

"Well, now they are in a relationship. BaekHyun picks him up in the afternoons on his motorcycle" ChanYeol fixed his gaze in him. “Haven’t you really seen them leaving together?".

JongIn bit his lip for a coherent answer to justify his lack of attention to that. He had been chasing the JungSeok idiot as if to notice that.

ChanYeol stopped and JongIn imitated him a few seconds later, turning to see what had happened. The boy was still staring at him, while JongIn bit his lip nervously. Maybe he had discovered it and knew the truth?

"Don’t bite it anymore," ChanYeol murmured as his thumb went to JongIn's lips, specifically his lower lip, and released him from the imprisonment of his teeth.

His thumb stroked JongIn's lip for a few moments, as if the universe had stopped only for him to perform that action. JongIn could feel his face heating up, his ears and neck accompanying this very thing; he really appreciated that there was not much lighting where they were because then he would have noticed how blushed he was.

Despite his embarrassment, JongIn didn’t look away from ChanYeol, who eventually ended up looking him in the eye too. They observed each other in silence, while not a bit of wind was running and not a single soul was passing through there.

ChanYeol leaned forward and down, as if he were doing it in slow motion; and JongIn, still as a statue in his place, observed everything with his eyes open like two giant plates.

The kiss was corresponded.

It was soft, slow, with a little tongue. The only contact between their bodies was the hand of ChanYeol holding JongIn's chin, and of course, his lips, which were sought with a hidden hungry dancing below the surface.

None said anything when they parted, or when they held hands, not even when they kissed again at the entrance gate of JongIn and their sisters made a fuss from the respective windows of their room, releasing whistles worthy of a fan of a soccer team.

He really liked the feeling, but when he finally leaned back on his bed and stared at the ceiling, JongIn wondered to himself if that - those kisses had not been just a way of fooling himself.

 

 

 

 

The days that followed that in which Chanyeol and him shared the kiss, were the same as the previous ones. Nothing happened between them again, but the tension could be felt there, floating in the air. KyungSoo had not made any comment about it, but every so often, when he adjusted the frame of his black-coated glasses over the bridge of his nose, he stared at them both waiting for some explanation that was not going to come from anybody's mouth. Eventually, the boy surrendered, and the friction of ChanYeol and JongIn's fingers underneath the cafeteria table was clearly lost by him.

JongIn, however, was quite far away from there. Even though ChanYeol was slowly trying to bring a lot of conversation with him, to spend more time together and to insist on topics such as: kindness, not to fight unless it is absolutely necessary, to firmly refuse revenge, and not to strike back with another punch, JongIn did not feel completely there; when JungSeok was on stage, the boy got all his attention and made him forget all that ChanYeol was trying to teach him. The anger and the desire for revenge still throbbed strongly in his blood, and he couldn’t just let it go. He actually refused to it.

That's why he stayed out of school on Friday night, when the team's training ended and he knew JungSeok was going home alone. That afternoon JungSeok had not brought his car, which was rare for JongIn; however, he was ready to give him a good beating on the parking lot and then leave.

Waiting behind a dumpster, JongIn watched from the shadows to the damn JungSeok using his phone in the middle of the parking lot. There were almost no cars or a lot of light. The lantern under which JungSeok was illuminated his meter eighty with a low intensity, and his breath formed a vapor in front of his face.

JongIn decided that this was the moment to go and look for him to fight him, but an arm of iron held him tightly by the elbow and held him in the shadows.

"What the fuck!?" he exclaimed annoyed, in a whisper, turning to face ChanYeol, who was staring at him and with clear anger on his face. "Let me go".

"No, because I don’t want you to do something stupid. SeHun warned me about this”.

"SeHun can go to hell."

"No, SeHun is your friend and he cares about you as much as I do. Neither of us want you to do this, to go this way. "

“Why?".

"You just watch," he murmured as he made a sign with his chin to where JungSeok was. Jongin turned around, and, standing next to ChanYeol, they both watched the figure in the middle of the parking lot. "JungSeok's dad is allowed to review all the notes before they are handed out to the students. And about the grades, who’s do you think he checks first?".

JungSeok’s father, the school principal, came walking through the parking lot with a look of fire in his eyes. JongIn stepped back from the shock of seeing him so angry.

"Do you think I'll open all the fucking doors of life just for your fucking lazy ass?!". Jongin heard the director screaming. He was tall, almost like his son, in good shape, maybe fifty. JongIn had never seen him so enraged as at that moment. "One D less! Who do you think you are? A mediocre asshole like the rest of your class? I didn’t raise you to pay me this way!"

"Dad, it's just a D! In history I got an...! "

"I do not give a fuck about shit! You must get better grades than that! Do you think that with a shit average I'll get letters of recommendation for your university? You’re so stupid!".

"But dad, the sports scholarship...".

"The sports scholarship will not get you with a broken leg."

JungSeok stepped back, then, completely terrified.

"What? What are you talking about?".

The principal started muttering some things. JongIn did not understand anything he said, he was too far away to hear what he said, but JungSeok looked too scared. "Get in the fucking car!".

The two figures disappeared from the parking lot before JongIn breathed again. A giant knot formed in his chest as he became aware of the situation, and JongIn turned to ChanYeol to face him.

"That... that's not normal," he murmured with a bit of pain in his chest. He didn’t want to feel sorry for JungSeok, but he actually felt it. "His dad... his dad abuses him!"

"Yes, he does. Where do you think JungSeok’s bruises come from? Fights? Nobody is able to touch him at school. He is like, high school's superman”.

"You say he makes up the stories of the bruises?" JongIn questioned horrified.

"Who would not believe those stories? After all, he's the team captain, he's supposed to be great and intimidating to everyone else on the steps below him".

JongIn bit his lip, but just as on that night that was still alive in his mind, ChanYeol made him stop biting it, releasing this by using his thumb.

"I know you want revenge on him, I really understand. But look at the situation, JongIn. What do you want to be?".

JongIn felt a terrible desire to vomit, but he understood. He really understood what ChanYeol wanted to tell him, and this time, he didn’t want to pretend anyone, not for ChanYeol, not to himself.

"Everything opposite to them”.

"Now do you understand why SeHun and I were worried about you?"

"Yes, I really do," answered JongIn, staring at the taller one.

ChanYeol smiled faintly and seemed to lean towards him to kiss him, but it was at that moment that ChanYeol's phone rang, interrupting the silence in which they had sunk for a moment and breaking the magic that had been built around him.

"Yes?" Chanyeol questioned when attending. JongIn looked at him curiously, from all the time he had spent with him no one had never called him on the cell phone. "What? Where?". He stood still, his expression worried, and that made JongIn worry too. "I'll be there in half an hour. Thanks for letting me know, BaekHyun".

"What happened?" Jongin questioned when Chanyeol gave him a look of deep concern.

"SeHun and BaekHyun had an accident with the bike".

"What?".

"They had a crash. BaekHyun called me because he doesn’t have your number. He told me that he is fine, but SeHun ... well, he had it worse".

"But nothing serious happened to him, right?" JongIn questioned in a thin voice, feeling that his world was summed up by the answer that ChanYeol was going to give him in the next few seconds.

"I don’t really know, JongIn. We’ll go to the hospital and we will check it there, ok? "

Nodding weakly, JongIn let himself be carried by the hand to Chanyeol's car. It was the first time she had climbed into that dilapidated truck, the one that he had seen it only a couple of times in the distance but in truth ChanYeol brought only a few times to school. The seats creaked and the whole truck smelled like fast food, but he really couldn’t notice too much about it when he could only think about whether his friend was okay.

However, the street they stopped on after a while wasn’t the hospital.

"What are we doing here? It's a building".

"Yes. It's the Baekhyun department", ChanYeol answered smiling a lot.

"But... what about the hospital?"

"Nothing, they are fine. We only scared you a bit with BaekHyun because we wanted SeHun and you to make things right. SeHun is waiting here because he thinks I'm bringing you hurt from a fight".

"Hey!". JongIn hit ChanYeol on the arm, angry. "You scared me!"

"I'm sorry, JongIn. I − we just wanted to help".

JongIn was speechless for a few moments, turned in the seat to see ChanYeol, who imitated him. They remained silent for several minutes, looking at each other, simply existing face to face.

He didn’t feel angry anymore. He was relieved that SeHun was actually okay, and also, he felt happy and even in love.

"Thanks for everything you've done for me, ChanYeol. I'm sorry I wanted to learn to fight for the wrong reasons".

ChanYeol smiled, and his arm stretched until his hand caressed JongIn's cheek. He bit his lip, and ChanYeol, as if nothing, released him with his thumb. None spoke for a few seconds.

"It's okay, JongIn”.

“So… you aren’t disappointed of me?”.

“No, I’m not. There are thousands of roads to choose from, you know. I just want to take you to the right one, but I can’t really do it if you don’t give me the permission to make you understand why you should go in that direction".

JongIn smiled, resting his head lazily on the back of the seat, without looking away from ChanYeol.

"It's okay, ChanYeol. I want it, and I guess I need it, too. You show me the way".

"Starting from now?" ChanYeol questioned as he leaned into his seat with a small smile.

"Starting from now," Jongin whispered before cutting the distance between his lips.


End file.
